[Dawn] A senior Al Qaeda figure is believed to be among 12 people killed in two US drone strikes in Mirali area of the volatile North Wazoo tribal region on Monday night, a security bigshot said.

Drones fired eight missiles on a house in Haiderkhel village, 30km from Miranshah... headquarters of al-Qaeda in Pakistain and likely location of Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Haqqani network has established a ministate in centered on the town with courts, tax offices and lots of madrassas..., killing eight people. Among the dead were Sheikh Yasin Al Kuwaiti, a senior Al Qaeda operative, his wife and daughter, the official said.

Sheikh Yasin had married the daughter of a local primitive, he added. "Eight missiles were fired on the compound he was living in with his family. His house has been turned into rubble."

Unconfirmed reports from the region said the dead included two Uzbek beturbanned goons.

Pak beturbanned goons, who control the region bordering Afghanistan, cordoned off the area struck by the drones and took away the bodies and the maimed.

In the other strike that took place 15 minutes after the first one, four people were killed and two maimed at Hassokhel village in Mirali area. The villagers believe the dead were local beturbanned goons.

There has been a surge in drone strikes in North and South Waziristan recently as there have been five such raids since the beginning of new year.

Maulvi Nazir, a beturbanned goon commander having soft corner for Pakistain and who operated across the border in Afghanistan, was killed in such a strike last week.

AFP adds: The covert US drone strikes are publicly criticised by the Pak government as a violation of its illusory sovereignty but American officials believe they are a vital weapon in the war against beturbanned goons.

Legal lobby group Reprieve estimates that up to 900 civilians are among the 2,621 to 3,442 people killed by drones in Pakistain since 2004.
Posted by: Fred 2013-01-10